


Morning

by SquaryQ



Series: They Exchanged A Smile - Anxious Babies - MultiFandom [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Cubes, Anxiety Disorder, Band, Established Relationship, I headcanon Nagisa has ADHD, I headcanon Rei has GAD, Life with GAD, M/M, Morning Routines, Music, Musical Talents, Panic, Piano, Slice of Life, Trying To Make Music, Trying to calm down, daily life, writing songs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 01:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13847133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaryQ/pseuds/SquaryQ
Summary: Rei has a weird dream about being at a piano recital and sleeps in. He rushes to get ready, all too aware he's forgetting something...not that he can remember what it is.





	Morning

_“And now, to grace the stage with his newest composition, the international sensation, Ryugazaki Rei!”_

_The tall blue haired man strode toward the piano at centre stage. He turned his head toward the crowd, smiled, waved and adjusted his red framed glasses. His head was held high as he made his way toward his instrument, his safe space, his solace._

_The roar of the applause became white noise as he sat down upon the stool, his fingers hovering above the piano keys and a bead of sweat falling from his brow toward his chin. Rei pursed his lips. He had a new composition? There was no sheet music upon the piano. Had he forgotten it? Would he have to improvise?_

_Oh God. The crowd was staring, some of them seemed to be speaking to one another._

_Rei grimaced, trying not to look at the faceless crowd, but their words were louder than his hammering heart._

_‘Why isn’t he playing?’ he put words in their mouths. Bile began to rise in his throat as the keys began to spin._

_“Boo! Play something you fool!”_

_“Boo!”_

_“Boo!”_

_A chorus of heckles seemed to bubble up from the depths of his audience and Rei began to quiver, breathing erratic as he tried to ground himself at the piano. As he tried to work out what he was to play._

 

 

 

 

 

Rei awoke with a start, sat bolt upright just as an alarm sounded. Rubbing sleep from his eyes and reaching for his red framed glasses, he yawned. Glasses on, he checked the time on the clock at his bedside, it seemed that he had snoozed three alarms that were to go off at five minute intervals. He was already ten minutes behind schedule for his morning routine and the extra moments asleep hadn’t helped him feel refreshed in the slightest.

He sat up, checked his notifications, dismissing the menial ones and leaving the significant to deal with later, and flopped back down into the embrace of the duvet. A knot had started to form in his stomach already. Rei groaned. He needed to move. Now was not the time to dither in bed.

Heaving heavy limbs from his bed, he trudged toward the living room. His siblings already up and about. His younger sister, Aoi had just fixed her lunch and was placing it in her schoolbag when Rei appeared. She had been up a while, her hair neatly styled into two braids. She adjusted her loud cyan coloured glasses that were slipping down her nose.

“Morning Onii-chan!” she exclaimed, waving, “How are you this morning?”

“I don’t feel too great…You?” Rei shrugged, voice strained and cracking. He pushed up his glasses and approached the cabinet, removing a glass and filling it with water. Rei downed the contents in several gulps, before promptly refilling the glass.

“I’m good! But remember, I’m going to be late tonight, Mei-chan has invited me and the others to go bowling after school.”

“Is that why your bag is so big? You’ve got a change of clothes?” Rei asked, raising a brow at the bloated bag on his sister’s shoulder.

“Yes. Fubuki-kun nearly got us reported to the school last time we went bowling because he nearly broke the barriers by jumping on Kaito-kun when he was about to toss the ball!” Aoi babbled.

“Seriously?” Rei asked, raising a brow, “Those two, seriously oh my gosh…”

“I know, right!” Aoi laughed, tipping the last of her juice down the sink.

Rei brushed beside his sister, refilling his glass for the third time. Aoi shook her head and left the room.

“Akira is already hogging the bathroom this morning. Just a warning!” she called from the doorway.

Rei sighed, of course his brother would be commandeering the bathroom, as per usual. He’d need to ease up on the water but his mouth still felt drier than the Sahara. He sighed, grabbing the food he prepared for himself the night before, from the fridge and heading back to his bedroom.

Once in his room, he placed his lunch in his bag and turned on his small stereo, a CD that Nagisa-kun had lent him began to play, songs he vaguely recognised from his boyfriend’s iPod came out through crackling speakers. He sighed and continued his morning routine, changing out into his school uniform. He left his tie on the bed and the top button undone for the moment, feeling uneasy about how off he was feeling this morning.

As the music thrummed out of the stereo, Rei got to preening himself for the day ahead, rubbing his face with a flannel, grimacing at the breakouts forming around his lip. He huffed, releasing his hair from its tie and letting the longer strands at the top to fall loose before combing it into submission.

He glanced at his watch. Twenty minutes until he would have to leave for the train station. And Akira still hadn’t vacated the bathroom. Rei groaned, trudging to the bathroom, knuckles rapping on the door.

“Nii-san, please hurry up in there. I have twenty minutes until I leave!” Rei huffed.

“Nii-chan!” Aoi echoed from the hallway, “Let Onii-chan use the bathroom so I can use the bathroom! I have half an hour til I need to be at Fubuki-kun’s house!”

A loud groan sounds from inside the bathroom and slowly Ryugazaki Akira heaved himself from the bathroom. Aoi bolted in, grabbing her toothbrush and toothpaste, ushering Rei to go in. He nodded curtly to his younger sister and rushed inside, taking a deep breath and coughing. The scent of aerosol from Akira’s hairspray was suffocating.

Why did he have to do his hair in the bathroom, instead of investing in a mirror like a normal person?

Rei opened the window above the toilet the slightest bit to let fresh air in and turned to the sink. He frantically scrubbed at his teeth before using the loo.

Once he left the bathroom, Aoi rushed in and spat a mouthful of toothpaste into the basin. Rei smiled at his sister and shut the bathroom door, heading back into his bedroom to grab his schoolbag and homework off his desk.

Each page of assigned work was organised into a folder, resting on his desk. Rei placed it into his bag and checked the contents of the bag for his class books for the day ahead.

“Japanese History, check. Maths, yes. Chemistry, got it. English…oh God, where’s my English book!” Rei said, head whirling around his room, trying to spot it. He groaned, trudging toward the desk, thumbing through his textbooks and grabbing his required one with gusto.

“Where was I?” He asked himself, “Japanese History, check. Maths, Chemistry, check and check. ENGLISH, check. And my gym kit’s at school...There’s something else…” Rei mused to himself, staring at the contents of his room. He was forgetting something; the tightening knot in his stomach made that very clear, but what could he be forgetting? Glancing at his watch, Rei checked the date in the corner.

Thursday, he didn’t have Swim Club of Thursdays. Not anymore, at least. Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai had cram school now, so they couldn’t run sessions on Thursday afternoons. Was there something else he had to do?

Rei pursed his lips, shouldering his bag and heading into the kitchen. It would come to him, he was sure of it.

Akira stood, leaning on the kitchen counter, on his phone, scrolling through social media.

“Nii-san, do you not have University today?” Rei enquired. His older brother shrugged, his hair staying completely still as he moved. Rei frowned.

“Can you please move. I need to grab some breakfast.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you, little brother. You have to leave, remember?”

Rei grimaced, checking his watch. Three minutes. HOW did he only have three minutes? How long did he waste trying to fathom what he was forgetting?

“Nii-san, am I forgetting anything?”

“You’re not wearing trousers.” Akira said, not looking up from his phone.

Rei shrieked, looking down at his legs before glaring daggers at his brother. Akira sniggered.

“That isn’t funny, Nii-san.”

He ran back to his bedroom and grabbed his blazer and tie, fastening it around his neck as he scrambled, the knot in his stomach not relenting in any way shape or form.

 

 

Nagisa was stood outside the train station. He started waving as soon as Rei came into sight.

“Morning Rei-chan!” Nagisa beamed, taking hold of his clammy hand, “How are you?”

Rei frowned, “Not too great this morning Nagisa-kun…How are you?”

“Have you eaten this morning?” Nagisa enquired, ignoring his boyfriend’s question.

They entered the train station with haste. Rei slid his ticket into the machine first, heading through the barrier. He turned to Nagisa on the other side, “Of course!”

“What did you have?” Nagisa asked as he pranced through the ticket barrier and toward the platform, taking hold of Rei’s hand.

“Err..”

“Liar!” Nagisa declared, stood on the tips of his toes, leaning up toward Rei.

Rei blushed, ducking his head.

“Don’t worry Rei-chan! My Rei-chan senses were tingling so I grabbed you an apple bar!” Nagisa exclaimed, brandishing the fruit bake in one hand like it was a trophy as the pair boarded the train to school.

“I can’t just eat your food, Nagisa-kun.” Rei said, deadpan.

“Don’t worry about me, Rei-chan! I got myself a strawberry one!” he grinned, producing a second bar from his pocket. He tossed Rei the first one, which he caught with ease. He stared at the green packet in his hand as Nagisa shovelled his into his mouth as the train chugged along.

Nagisa claimed a seat, but Rei had been too slow and found himself stood up before Nagisa. The magenta eyed blond pouted, crossing his arms.

“Aren’t you going to eat, Rei-chan?”

The taller one of the pair grimaced, his stomach objecting the mere thought of food. Swallowing his pride, as if it would take the lump in his throat, Rei opened the apple bar and taking a bite to spite Nagisa. Chewing it made him retch. Nagisa squeaked, jumping up as the train jolted to a stop. He latched onto a pale yet clammy Rei, before grabbing him his water bottle out of the side of the obnoxious green rucksack on his back, and handed it over. Rei nodded in thanks and took a few swigs of the contents.

“Nagisa-kun can you please sit back down, I’m feeling a tad claustrophobic.”

“Sure, Rei-chan.” Nagisa nodded, stepping back and perching back on his seat.

He peered up at him with curious eyes.

“Anxious?” he enquired. Rei nodded.

“Here, Rei-chan, it’s one of my fidget toys!” Nagsia said, handing his boyfriend a white cube with a variety of pink dials upon it.

“Namiko-nee got it for me because of my ADHD. But I read somewhere that stimulation can calm nerves. Maybe it’ll help until we get off the train?” Nagisa offered.

“Thank you, Nagisa-kun,” Rei said with a small smile as his fingers felt the textures upon the cube in his hands. He gravitated toward the switch and began to open and close a circuit in his mind by playing with the button, while another finger rested in a smooth indented crevice.

His chest was still tight, but he could fiddle. He could get through this.

 

After half an hour on the train, they exited, along with many more of their schoolmates.

“Do you wanna talk about it, Rei-chan?” Nagisa offered, the pair walking in step. Rei was still playing with the cube so Nagisa didn’t reach for his hand. Instead he just smiled, walking a centimetre or so closer, relishing in the closeness.  

“I was feeling queasy when I awoke this morning. I dreamt I was being boo’d offstage at some sort of recital…Oh my God…Nagisa-kun were we meant to be at rehearsal tonight in the music room?”

Nagisa nodded his head, “Remember, Rei-chan, Hanabi-kun told us to bring lyrics and stuff.”

He gulped.

That’s it.

His subconscious had been trying to remind him. He hadn’t done everything Hanabi-kun had requested.

Rei frowned.

“Nagisa-kun, could I please sit?” Rei asked.

Nagisa nodded, gesturing to the nearest bench. Rei sat, frantically fumbling with the cube he had been given. Nagisa tried his best to look elsewhere, holding his hand out toward Rei, should he need a substantial anchor in himself.

“If you want, you can give Hanabi-kun my songbook and I can just improvise during Homeroom this morning?” Nagisa offered with a bright smile.

The offer made Rei come to a stop. With furrowed brows, his hand rested above his stomach, he could feel the knot starting to fray away. He nodded and took Nagisa’s hand.

“Thank you Nagisa-kun.”

“It’s okay Rei-chan! I’m here for you! Now! Let’s go to school.”

Rei nodded, taking Nagisa’s hand, the excessive flicking of the switch on the cube easing its way into a slower pace.

The pair shared a smile.  

 


End file.
